Berlin -- It has taken Germany's Bishops' Conference six years to formally ban the pregnancy advisory service, Donum Vitae, from all its dioceses after complaints from the Vatican and Catholic groups.

Donum Vitae, a private organization established by Catholic lay persons, issues certificates that are legally required to obtain an abortion in Germany. Abortion is technically illegal in Germany, but women are able to have them, provided they have received counselling at a state approved centre (such as Donum Vitae), which then issues them with a certificate allowing them to proceed with the abortion.

The bishops have cautioned pregnancy information centres run by Catholic agencies not to co-operate with or share services with Donum Vitae, since providing a certificate to allow an abortion is totally against Catholic teaching and would be cooperating with the evil of abortion. In 2001, Bishop Franz Kamphaus of Limburg refused to ban Donum Vitae from his diocese not because he supported abortion, but because he saw counselling as a way to dissuade women from abortion (C.I., May 2001, p. 19). Then, in March 2002 Bishop Kamphaus capitulated after being issued with a second order from the Vatican to stop supporting the counselling service in his diocese.

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